


many beacons in the sea

by orphan_account



Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Sirens, M/M, Stiles is a Siren, pre slash
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-10-11
Updated: 2015-10-11
Packaged: 2018-04-25 22:19:24
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,479
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4978672
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Stiles has known all his life that he’s not like other kids. He’s special.</p><p>“It’s alright, love,” his mom says, leaning over him at night when he can’t sleep because his legs hurt so bad. “Just let it hurt.” </p><p>She kisses his forehead. He dreams of the sea. They go to the beach that weekend.</p><p>*</p><p>Stiles is a siren. He’s an anomaly, until he isn’t.</p>
            </blockquote>





	many beacons in the sea

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [No Oceans Left](https://archiveofourown.org/works/626037) by [zoemathemata](https://archiveofourown.org/users/zoemathemata/pseuds/zoemathemata). 



> Title from “Safer in the Forest / Love Song for Poor Michigan” by La Dispute.
> 
> This is… I don’t know what this is? I read this amazing fic called “No Oceans Left” by zoemathemata, which had mermaid!Stiles, and it was so good I wanted in on it, too. My Stiles is a siren, and this is much, much shorter than “No Oceans Left,” but that’s where the concept came from. Everyone should go read that, like, now.
> 
> In my head, this is canon compliment up until S5, because the only thing changed is the fact that Stiles is a siren, but I’m pretending none of the events of S5 actually occurred.

Stiles has known all his life that he’s not like other kids. He’s special.

“It’s alright, love,” his mom says, leaning over him at night when he can’t sleep because his legs hurt so bad. “Just let it hurt.”

She kisses his forehead. He dreams of the sea. They go to the beach that weekend.

*

When he’s older, he offers to turn Scott after a really bad asthma attack. Stiles has never turned anyone, but he knows how. He’d do it, if Scott wanted him to. Even if the process nearly killed both of them.

Scott just shakes his head. “Nah,” he says thoughtfully, “I like being human.” He breaks into a grin. “Besides, every superhero needs a sidekick.”

They laugh. Stiles says, “You gonna be my Lois Lane?” and Scott dimples at him and says, “You gonna kiss me?”

Stiles does, because he knows a dare when he hears one, and they laugh and laugh and laugh until they forget why Stiles kissed Scott in the first place.

Well. Scott forgets. Stiles dreams of drowning Scott that night, and when he wakes up, his throat hoarse and his dad murmuring soothing words into his hair, he knows he’s been singing.

*

The werewolf thing is unexpected. Not totally, but still.

Scott gets bitten, and suddenly, Stiles isn’t the only freak of nature anymore. He’s not the hero anymore, either. Sirens can’t do much in a fight, not like werewolves can.

Stiles wonders if Derek can smell the sea on him, sometimes. Scott doesn’t notice anything, but, bless him, Scott doesn’t know what the fuck he’s doing as a werewolf, either.

They decide it’s better not to tell anyone. It’s a safety measure, at first, and then it’s just something that’s been held back for so long it’s too late to let it go.

*

When Stiles gets possessed, it’s hell. The nogitsune realizes all too quickly how much Stiles craves the sea and he abuses it. He kills people there, the beach staining crimson and the water washing away so much blood. But nobody actually dies. It’s all in Stiles’ head.

When it’s over, he can’t go back. He dreams of his mother, face down in the ocean, her dark hair swirling out around her, her once vibrant tail now sickly and pale. He tries to swim towards her, to help her, but his tail turns to legs again and he can’t swim with normal legs, he can’t remember how. He drowns, too. Wonders if they’ll find his body bobbing alongside his mother’s.

Scott asks if he’s alright. Stiles gives him a grim smile and wonders why everyone is so fucking _okay_. Allison is dead. It’s Stiles’ fault. He’s the only one who seems to realize that.

He picks up smoking, and it makes his gills turn an ashen color underneath his shirt and it makes his voice scratchier when he sings in the shower, but he’s not doing much swimming or singing these days, anyways.

Scott asks again, if he’s okay. Stiles blows smoke at the sky and says, “I’m okay, buddy. I’m just lost at sea.”

*

Mexico comes as a surprise. Stiles looks at Derek and he realizes he doesn’t want to leave him. Stiles has known for a while that he trusts Derek, but it takes this moment to realize how much Derek really means to him.

He flees, because he’s terrified that if he stays, he’ll start singing.

*

He stops smoking. He gets better.

*

When Stiles was younger, he met a woman named Talia out on the beach. His mom told him, later, that if he ever needed help, if something ever happened to her, to go to Talia.

When his mother died, he found himself drawn to a house out on the preserve, and Talia pulled him into her arms. She gave him hot cocoa and let him cry and scream, and he dozed off on her couch. When he woke up, there was an older boy standing in the doorway, eyebrows arched as he looked at Stiles. Talia pulled Stiles out of the house before he spoke to the boy, took him down to the beach and let Stiles swim until he was crying again. Then she took him home, and took care of the sheriff, too.

Stiles only saw the boy again once, a few years later, in his dad’s office after an evening at the McCall’s. He was hunched over in a chair and an older girl was crying next to him, and the grief emanating from them was so strong Stiles started singing.

He had everyone’s attention but he couldn’t stop, lungs bursting to push the song out, and it was only when his father had a hand over his mouth, pulling him into an interrogation room, that Stiles came back to himself.

“You can’t sing in front of people, bud,” the sheriff said, rubbing a hand over Stiles’ head. “It’s not safe for them.”

It wasn’t until Peter was telling the story about Derek and Paige, when he mentioned Derek’s mother, Talia Hale, that the connection clicked in Stiles’ head.

For a long time after, he’s not sure how he missed it.

*

They take him because he’s supposed to be human, and he’s supposed to be weak.

When Stiles wakes up, hunters surrounding him and laughing and jeering, he’s disoriented and distressed, but there’s one thing he knows, deep inside his bones.

Derek is going to come for him.

*

Derek comes for him. It takes time, a couple of days, but Derek comes. Just like Stiles knew he would.

Stiles doesn’t know where the others are. But he knows that Derek is outnumbered ten to one, and he watches them take him down, get him on his knees, and there is a moment when it looks like Derek is going to die, and Stiles _bursts_.

His wailing fills the air. The hunters crumble like houses of cards and Derek does, too, but Stiles can’t stop. It’s been held back for too long.

Scott stops him, when he comes in.

The hunters are dead. Derek is halfway there. Stiles’ ears are ringing. That weekend, they go to the beach.

*

Stiles tells them, Lydia and Derek and Malia and Kira and Liam. He doesn’t look at anyone. He stands on the sand and looks at the water and thinks about drowning, wonders if it’s even possible for a siren to drown. He’s not sure he can get in the water, after the nogitsune. He’s not sure he’ll make it back out if he does.

“You’re a mermaid,” Kira says, frown creasing her face.

“Siren,” Stiles corrects softly.

Malia huffs. “You never thought about telling us?”

Lydia shushes her with a wave of her hand, gives him a considering look from behind her large sunglasses. When she speaks, what she says is, “Show me,” her red lips pursed around the words.

Stiles needs this. Someone to tell him to do it.

He strips down, pretends being naked around them like this isn’t awkward, and he steps into the sea.

They find a way for sirens to be useful in fights. Stiles’ song is as deadly as Lydia’s scream, once Deaton helps them figure out how to protect the pack’s ears. They’re doing okay.

*

Derek comes to him, one night, sits up in Stiles’ room and is there when Stiles gets out of the shower.

“You’re a siren,” Derek says, staring at him.

Stiles arches a brow. “Yeah, big guy. I am.”

They stare at each other. Finally, Derek says, “I knew a siren, once. My mom did. I think her name was—Clara? Claudia?”

Stiles flinches, and Derek’s brow furrows. “Claudia Stilinski,” Stiles says softly. “She married my dad, and on their honeymoon in Barbados, she got pulled under by a singing siren. She should have drowned. She _did_ drown. When her body floated back to the surface of the water, she came back to life. A woman reborn. A siren.”

“You’re a born siren?” Derek asks, and Stiles nods. Derek studies him. “Why didn’t you say anything?”

Stiles bites his lip, knows Derek isn’t asking about the siren thing, but knows that Derek will let him answer as if he was, anyways. “It took me a while to realize it was you,” he says quietly. “That Talia was—Talia Hale. It didn’t occur to me for a long time.”

Derek sighs. “Feels like we missed an opportunity to know each other—growing up like we did. We should have met before we did.”

“Yeah,” Stiles agrees, looking down at the floor. “We should have.”

Derek doesn’t leave that night. Stiles doesn’t ask him to. They fall asleep curled around each other, and Stiles dreams of  a rocking boat, a crying baby, Derek Hale with an arm around his midsection, Polish lullabies hummed over the crash of waves.

Stiles dreams of the sea.


End file.
